Abstract In light of the growing agreement on the critical impact that materials can have on teaching and learning, classroom-based research on materials use in natural educational contexts has become increasingly urgent. This study aims to explore language teachers’ use of instructional materials in classroom settings. Drawing on the analysis of materials, interviews, and lesson observations from case...

AbstractThis mixed-methods study investigated the use of supplementary materials by EFL teachers in Ecuadorian secondary schools. Via the use of teacher interviews (n=12) it was found that teachers believe the use of supplementary materials increases the motivation of the students, which in-turn improves the learning possibilities of the stude...

South Korean job seekers face pressure to produce high scores on standardized English tests, which leads to the prominence of test-oriented pedagogy. Though recent scholarship illustrates how materials reflect the values of society and how these are negotiated in classrooms it has mainly analyzed preexisting published books, leaving the potential of student-generated materials (SGMs) underexplored. By using a new mat...

In order to conceptualize materials used in pair-work activities from a sociomaterialist perspective, this study examined the moment-by-moment unfolding of 67 pair-work interactions in beginner- level Japanese-as-a-foreign-language classrooms. The types of pair-work materials used in the focal classrooms—either textbook or teacher-designed activities—were highly controlled with s...

Materials use is a critical yet poorly understood dynamic of language classrooms. This study examines ‘materials-in-action,’ meaning how materials shape classroom interaction and activity, in a beginning-level French-as-a-foreign-language classroom. The conceptual framework, ‘pedagogical ergonomics,’ similarly centers on materials-in-action, and more specifically on ‘intra-action.’ This re...